


Hold Still

by Strength_in_pain



Series: Stranger Things Childhood Series [1]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016), Stranger Things - Fandom
Genre: Baby Mike, Baby Mike Wheeler, Gen, Good Parent Karen Wheeler, The Wheelers childhood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-09-07 17:55:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20313634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Strength_in_pain/pseuds/Strength_in_pain
Summary: A series of all the Stranger Things characters as children before the show starts.This story starts with Karen Wheeler becoming a mother and raising two babies.





	Hold Still

**Hold Still**

“Hold still,” Karen’s mother zipped the floor length wedding dress up her back. “There. You look beautiful, sweetie.”

Twenty-year-old Karen Brown, soon to be Karen Wheeler, gazed at herself in the mirror for a long while. She looked ravishing, with her light hair pulled up, and her make-up highlighting all the right features, Karen felt young, beautiful, and happy. 

Her marriage was marvelous, like one straight out of a fairytale. She would have never dreamed to have been so lucky to find a man as handsome and wealthy as Ted Wheeler. But there she was, standing next to him, married for life at twenty years old. He had enough money to support her, so she could live comfortably. They could start a family too, even buy a beautiful house. 

Karen took the house searching seriously. She wanted a spacious area for her future family to live in. It was a mission for her, and she felt so useful. Ted loved all of her suggestions and even left it up to her when it came down to the final decision. Karen loved that power. She appreciated her husband even more for giving her all of the power in picking their new home.

A few years later, and after many tries, Karen finally got pregnant with her first child. She was twenty-four years old and she was nervous about raising a child. She called her mother a million times the second she found out she was pregnant. Between her mother and her husband, Karen felt supported and cared for. The pregnancy ran smoothly, and before long, Karen Wheeler was a mother. 

Being a mother was more than giving birth to a child, it was loving and knowing a soul before she even saw it. Once the baby girl was in her arms, she realized just how dependent that baby was, and how important she was as a mother. This child depended on her for survival. This child was her child. Her flesh and blood, her DNA, her genes, parts of her and Ted meshed together into this real live baby. A real human being. But more than that, it was a love that was continuing to grow, and would continue to grow forever. From that moment on, Karen knew she would always be a mommy first, and she was happier than ever. 

Of course, a baby is work. There were sleepless nights. But Nancy was practically an angel sent from heaven because within a week she was sleeping soundly through the night. Yes, Karen was more than blessed when it came to Nancy. 

As a toddler Nancy would tell stories, and babble on about the most innocent things. Flowers were suddenly shown to Karen in a whole different way. She would never look at green beans the same way after they were spit on her shirt a million times, and nightly bedtime stories were routine. 

In fact, Karen’s life turned into a routine after having a child. By the time Nancy was three, Karen found herself pregnant once again. This time, she was even happier than the last. Now Nancy could have a playmate. 

Once Karen brought Mike home, Nancy was beyond ecstatic to have a little brother. For a little while she thought of Mike as a baby doll, and tried to drag him around by the leg like she did with her cabbage patch girl. Nancy seemed to understand quickly though, that this baby had feelings and was very much alive. She soon started taking very gentle care of Mike. 

Karen’s heart was overwhelmed with happiness at her little family. But after a few months, her euphoria faded. 

Michael was a sweet baby, but he was different than Nancy. He was fussy, and clingy and he practically cried whenever anyone would leave the room. He constantly needed to be held and bounced or sang to. As difficult as he was, the reward was tremendous. After a minute of bouncing or rocking, Mike would let out a giggle that would tug at Karen’s heartstrings every time. The way Mike would laugh and smile was also different than Nancy. He seemed more alive when he laughed, full of genuine happiness and joy. Not that Nancy wasn’t happy, but she was more content and contained with her emotions. 

Karen learned very quickly that her son felt every emotion to the extreme. As a toddler, when he was happy, he would smile and giggle and laugh. He would hold his Mommy’s hand and do tricks and plea for her to watch him. But when he was angry he would scream until his face turned red, and kick his legs out all over the floor. Sometimes he would even hit his mom or sister during one of his tantrums. But like a spark, as quickly as it ignites, it fades. Karen used that time to explain things to him like how hitting is wrong and hurtful. When Mike was scared or hurt he wouldn’t just cry, he would sob. Gut wrenching cries, so painful that it made Karen want to take away any discomfort her child ever had to go through and prevent every ounce of pain. But the best part was when Karen was having a bad day and Mike would run up to her and wrap his little arms around her legs and say, “I love you mommy.” Karen needed nothing else in her life. 

This morning was one of the difficult days. Karen was exhausted and busy scheduling days for her work, and her husband was still sleeping while she cooked breakfast, and Mike was upstairs crying his eyes out.

Karen grunted, her mitten hands in the oven while she pulled out a tray of muffins. She sighed. 

“TED! CAN YOU GET HIM?” She shouted upstairs, but it was no use. Her husband could sleep through anything, as she had learned over the years. 

With Nancy, Karen didn’t mind being the one to grab her at night and comfort her back to sleep, because Nancy didn’t cry often. But once Mike came around, Karen would have loved to take turns with her husband, but Ted was always sleeping after ten and he never woke up for anything. Once Karen had forcefully slapped him awake and he was so angry about it, they got in a major fight for a day. After that, Karen settled for her position as mother who comforted the children without the father. 

Still, during moments like these, Karen wished her husband would help a little. She had grown tired of the power she had. She appreciated her husband giving her a say, but he never put in his own opinion. So Karen was the one to make up rules, and deal with tantrums, and basically be the bad guy. She looked to Ted for advice when dishing out punishments for the first time because she had no idea what she was doing, but he told her whatever she wanted to do would be fine. Apparently she had great judgement, at least that’s what he said. But Karen wanted _help_. She wanted Ted to tell her what he would have done, what his parents did to him, what he read about in books. She wanted help but she never got any. 

Sometimes, things felt like they were falling apart. Karen felt like she made a lot of wrong moves on a daily basis and today was no exception. 

As she climbed the stairs towards Michael’s room, she smoothed out her dress. When she entered Mike’s room, she saw her naughty toddler trying to climb out of the crib. 

“Hey Mister.” She smiled, walking over to him and lifting him up. “Where do you think you’re going? Huh?” She kissed his belly and Mike responded with a round of infectious squeals. 

“Mommy.” He laughed as Karen laid him on the dresser. She grabbed at his shorts, but Mike was withering around on the changing station. 

“Michael. Please hold still.” She pleaded, as she managed to finally remove the shorts from his tiny legs. 

“I’m not comfy,” He whined trying to get away from her hands by scooting back towards the edge of the table. 

“Of course you aren’t, baby,” she grabbed Mike by the hips to bring him closer again. “If you stayed still so I could change you, that could be fixed.” 

However, the boy was determined on his ridiculous tantrum. Why he woke up in a rebellious mood sometimes was beyond Karen, but it really annoyed her when it happened. 

He squirmed around and reached for the pacifier that was hanging around a nail on the wall. 

Karen took that moment to untape the diaper from around his waist. 

Mike whined at his sudden discomfort and instead of waiting patiently for a new diaper like normal, he decided to kick his legs against Karen’s arms, keeping her from changing him. 

“Michael stop it right now.” She shouted. 

Mike only got fussier. “NO,” He screeched. 

“Alright.” Karen said, already tired of the unnecessary situation. She grabbed the boy by his feet, lifted his small hips, and landed one sharp but quick smack to his bottom. When she released his feet, the boy’s bottom lip was trembling, and he was curling into a ball but he stopped kicking. 

“Are you done acting like a brat or do I need to give you a proper spanking?” She didn’t yell, but her voice was firm and harsh. 

It was enough to tip Mike over the edge and send him into a fit of tears. As he cried, Karen finally finished changing the boy since he was laying completely motionless. She sighed in relief when she saw no rash on his skin while she was wiping. 

Once he was in a fresh diaper, she grabbed the pacifier that was laying by Mike’s side and slipped it into his mouth. Mike sucked eagerly on this new source of comfort, his eyes still leaking slightly. 

“Come on,” she sighed. “Let’s go wake Nancy.” 

Karen knew the mention of his big sister would cheer the boy up, and it worked like a charm. Mike was smiling around the pacifier. His emotions changing in the blink of an eye. Karen was absolutely dreading his teen years. 

She plopped Mike down on Nancy’s bed and watched as he crawled over her face. One tiny hand on Nancy’s cheek, then other on her forehead. Nancy groaned miserably, but sat up. 

“Mike” she whined, “What do you want?” 

“Nanny.” He said around his pacifier, pulling at her hair. 

She groaned again. “Ugh, Mike.”

“It’s breakfast time, sweetie.” Karen jumped in. She lifted Mike away from the girl and connected him to her hip. “I made muffins.”

“Yay.” Mike clapped. Karen kissed his nose, before turning back to her eldest. 

“Come on, or you’ll be late for school.”

Nancy dragged herself out of bed, then went over to her closet to grab a pair of clothes. Karen noticed that Nancy had been doing that lately. She has been taking it upon herself to pick out her own clothes in the morning. She used to grabs the outfit Karen has sitting out for her, and she put it on. But now she chooses her own clothes. Karen smiled proudly at her eldest girl and wondered briefly how she was going to survive watching them grow. No matter how much Michael drove her crazy sometimes, she was going to hold the precious child in her arms for as long as she could because soon he would be just like Nancy. 

Once everyone was seated around the table, Karen served her family breakfast and everyone ate together like a well oiled machine, and since this was her life now, Karen was going to keep it this way for as long as possible. 


End file.
